A Dentist's Shop is Fitted Up

The Shakers, like most communities, had need for the care and removal of bothersome teeth.  In the early years, no doubt, there was someone assigned to teeth-pulling, but the records are silent on dentistry until the mid-nineteenth century.  In 1854, an ell was added to the Ministry Shop, and here Elder Timothy Randlett of Enfield Shaker Village practiced dentistry.  The room was multi-functional, however, and was also used as a broom shop and for joinery.  Six years after the addition, Elder Henry Blinn traveled to Enfield Shaker Village to assist in making some artificial teeth.  It was no doubt a successful trip, because on April 23, 1860, dentistry won out over other occupations.  Records note that “a dentist shop is fitted up.  We have a good set of tools for making plate work and for filling or extracting teeth” (Blinn, Church Record, p.)

The first year the dentistry cost the Canterbury Shakers $166.41.  According to the written documents, the period of greatest activity appears to have been between 1860 and 1870.  Henry Blinn traveled to other villages to make artificial teeth, as evidenced by his note on a trip to Shirley, Massachusetts:  “The impression is taken at Shirley and the teeth arranged.  The form is then taken to Boston to be vulcanized.  We then meet the Ministry at Harvard Mass and fit the plates for use.  It was a good job.”  By 1863, pleased with their new skills, the Canterbury Shakers “purchased the right of vulcanizing for the Society and have bought the apparatus.”  A brother from Enfield Shaker Village visited Blinn to learn the vulcanizing system.  Cooperation between the Shaker villages is noted:  in 1870, Brother Nelson Chase of Enfield was employed by Canterbury for three weeks to do some dentristy.

That Blinn was interested in dentistry was not surprising.  Of an inquisitive and practical mind, he had mastered the skills necessary for printing, woodworking, and stone carving.  He was deeply involved in projects involving the precise classification and categorization of objects:  rock, mineral, and natural history collecting; library work; and labeling museum objects.  Interested in history, he also penned an essay about the historical and mythological origins of the turnkey—a frightening device once used for pulling teeth.

To read an excerpt from the Shakers' "Turnkey" article, click HERE.

By the twentieth century the Shakers were employing outside dentists to run the dentist’s shop, and the locus of dental care moved to the Infirmary.  One might suspect that the Infirmary became a more ideal space considering the renovations and sanitation upgrades during the turn of the twentieth century.  Dentists from the surrounding communities would come to the Village for the morning to tend to dental problems.  As automobiles made travel much more efficient, the Brothers and Sisters would often take a trip to Concord to make their dental visits.  By 1915 the Ministry’s dental shop was renovated into a sitting room, and the active days of Canterbury Shaker Village dentistry had come to an end.

Captions:

1. Photograph of Ministry Shop back ell (view from south), Canterbury Shaker Village, 2006.
2. Historic Photograph of Elder Henry Blinn, 1880-1905. From Canterbury Shaker Village collection, #p1
3. Excerpt from an essay entitled "The Turnkey", by Elder Henry Blinn.  The Shaker Manifesto. From Canterbury Shaker Village collection.
4. Anesthesia bottles.  CSV Collection. On display in the Infirmary Building at Canterbury Shaker Village, Inc.